Children acquiring Japanese differ from those acquiring English with regard to the rate at which verbs are learned (Fernald & Morikawa, 1993). One possible explanation is that Japanese caregivers use verbs in referentially transparent contexts, which facilitate the form-meaning link. We examined this hypothesis by assessing differences in verb usage by Japanese and American caregivers during dyadic play with their infants (5-22 months). We annotated verb-containing utterances for elements associated with referential transparency and compared across groups. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found that Japanese caregivers used verbs in fewer referentially transparent contexts than American caregivers, or did not significantly differ from American caregivers, depending on the measure. These findings cast doubt on cross-cultural differences in referential transparency between Japanese and American child-directed input.

中文翻译：

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日本和美国看护人以儿童为导向的输入中动词的引用透明度


儿童学习日语与学习英语的儿童在学习动词的速度上有所不同（Fernald & Morikawa， 1993）。一种可能的解释是，日本护理人员在指涉透明的上下文中使用动词，这促进了形式-意义的联系。我们通过评估日本和美国看护者在与婴儿（5-22 个月）进行二元游戏时动词使用的差异来检验这一假设。我们为与引用透明度相关的元素注释了包含动词的话语，并在各组之间进行了比较。与我们的假设相反，我们发现日本护理人员在比美国护理人员更少的指涉透明上下文中使用动词，或者与美国护理人员没有显着差异，具体取决于衡量标准。这些发现对日本和美国以儿童为导向的输入之间参考透明度的跨文化差异提出了质疑。